Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISIHead of Data Science for Innovation
Dr. Karl Trela has been working for Fraunhofer since August 2017, initially for the Fraunhofer Center for International Management and Knowledge Economy IMW in Leipzig. He has headed the Data Science for Innovation Unit since mid-2021, and the unit has been part of Fraunhofer ISI in Leipzig since January 1, 2025. Dr. Trela is mainly involved in the agile development of web applications for knowledge and technology transfer using machine learning. Previously, he worked at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research in Leipzig, at the Leipzig University and at the Center for European Economic Research in Mannheim.
Dr. Trela studied economics with a focus on econometrics and finance at the University of Mannheim and the University of Connecticut. In his doctoral thesis “Economic Decision Support for Climate Adaptation Policy”, he explored the possible applications of economic decision-making methods in the field of public adaptation to climate change. He also completed training in Design Thinking at the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) in Potsdam and Data Science at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich.